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Development of a fire detection and suppression system for a smart air cargo container

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 October 2020

Q. Zhang*
Affiliation:
Department of Materials, The University of Manchester, Manchester, UK Department of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil engineering, The University of Manchester, Manchester, UK Aerospace Research Institute, The University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
Y.C. Wang
Affiliation:
Department of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil engineering, The University of Manchester, Manchester, UK Aerospace Research Institute, The University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
C. Soutis
Affiliation:
Department of Materials, The University of Manchester, Manchester, UK Aerospace Research Institute, The University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
M. Gresil
Affiliation:
Department of Materials, The University of Manchester, Manchester, UK Aerospace Research Institute, The University of Manchester, Manchester, UK

Abstract

This study investigates and proposes a fire detection and suppression system for a smart air cargo container. A series of smoke spread and fire evolution numerical models are executed to assess the performance of container-based fire detection in various fire scenarios. This is to identify the worst case and optimise the location and threshold setting of fire detection sensors, achieving the shortest detection time. It is found that the fire detection threshold (reduction in light transmission = 12%/ft) for a container-based system can be set at three times the standard activation threshold for a cargo-based fire detection system, which can reduce the number of false alarms by three orders of magnitude. Moreover, effectiveness analysis of passive fire protection for the glass fibre-reinforced polymer-made smart container indicates an allowable leakage size of 0.01m2. The risk of internal overpressure has been found to be negligible for the leakage size required by aircraft pressure equalisation.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Royal Aeronautical Society

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